Most northern flickers migrate. They remain during the winter in some localities, as Cape Cod, where food is sufficiently abundant. Mr. Forbush tells of flickers that have bored holes in summer cottages on the Cape, and spent the winters in rooms which they damaged by their habit of “pecking.” He states that bird-boxes containing large entrances placed on the outside of the houses or on the trees near by, would have prevented those flickers from forming the “criminal habit of breaking and entering.”[73] Red-Shafted Flickers have also been found guilty of the same crime, and have entered not only dwellings, but school-houses and church steeples.[74]
Though rather shy birds, they often approach inhabited houses and frequently cause amusing situations because of their regular drumming on roof or wall. In Florida, a young woman whom I know was once aroused from her early morning’s sleep by a flicker’s knock, and drowsily responded with a “Come in.” A friend and I, spending a week-end in an Ohio summer cottage that possessed no alarm-clock, asked to be called in time for a very early boat. We heard a knocking, arose, dressed quietly to avoid disturbing the household, and then found that our summons had come from flickers on the roof, and that we had lost about two hours of precious morning’s sleep.
Flickers have more local names than almost any other bird. Over one hundred names have been recorded, of which “Yellowhammer,” and “Golden-winged Woodpecker,” are perhaps most common.
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
Woodpecker Family—Picidæ
Length: About 9¾ inches; nearly as large as a robin.
General Appearance: A black and white bird with entire head and neck bright red.
Male and Female: Head, neck, throat, and upper part of the breast brilliant red; upper part of back and wings black; longer wing-feathers or primaries also black; lower back and secondary wing-feathers white; under parts white; tail pointed, black, margined with white. In flight, the areas of red, black, and white are very distinct.
Young: Brown heads and necks, mottled with black; upper parts of backs barred with light brown. The other parts of their bodies resemble those of their parents.
Note: No song, but a loud, cheerful Quir-r-r-k? Quir-r-r-k? and a drumming sound, similar to that made by other woodpeckers.
Habitat: Open woods, groves of beeches preferred.
Nest: In hollow tree-trunks or telegraph-poles.
Range: From southeastern British Columbia, to Ontario, south to the Gulf Coast, and from central Montana, Colorado, and Texas east to the valleys of the Hudson and Delaware; rare in New England. Irregularly migratory in the northern parts of its range.
This conspicuous bird is one of the handsomest members of the Woodpecker family. He is the only one really entitled to the name of Red-Headed Woodpecker. His male relatives wear only small skull-caps placed on their crowns at various angles; he possesses a sort of toboggan-cap pulled down over his head and tucked into his black coat and white vest-front.
Many stories and legends are told of this woodpecker. He is the delight of children in localities where he is to be found. I remember how I used to look for the red hood and the black shawl worn over a white dress, especially noticeable in flight. I never tired of watching one of these birds approach his nest in a tall dead tree with food in his mouth. At a signal from him, his wife’s red head would appear in the doorway. She would emerge; he would then enter and remain with the children until her return.
Redheads have not been popular with farmers, who have accused them of various crimes. They have been caught eating small fruit and corn on the ear, destroying both the eggs and young of other birds, and boring holes in telegraph-poles in which to build their nests. While individuals may be guilty of such misdemeanors, the redheads are probably neither so black nor so gory, except in plumage, as they are painted.